Combined service cock key and curb box cleanout



Jan. 30, 1934.

V. E. BEAGLE COMBINED SERVICE COCK KEY AND CURB BOX CLEANOU'I Filed Dec. 30, 1931 Patented Jan. 30, 1934 COMBINED SERVICE COCK KEY AND CURB BOX CLEANOUT Victor E. Beagle, Alexandria, Va.

Application December 30, 1931 Serial No. 583,986

3 Claims.

The invention relates to plumbing tools and particularly to a key adapted to facilitate operation of the curb stop or cock valve notwithstanding the accumulation of dirt and trash often found in the curb and gate valve boxes.

It is common to find the box packed with sand and leaves, brick, stones, and sticks, or other trash which gains access when the cover is loose or broken, or when the box is left open. The

removal of this accumulated trash is quite difiicult, owing to the fact that it is usually packed quite hard due to water repeatedly settling therein, and it is an object of my invention to present a tool specially adapted to this particular use and which may be combined with the regular service mans key so that special separate tools or equipment are not required to enable access to a curb stop cock, and the device is also an excellent tun nelling bar.

An aim of the invention is to present a specific novel form of construction in the excavating and cleaning member and its mounting, whereby high efiiciency, compactness and low cost are maintained.

Additional objects, advantages and features of invention reside in the construction, arrangement and combination of parts involved in the embodiment of the invention, as will be understood from the following description and accompanying drawing, wherein Figure 1 is a side view of a complete tool embodying my invention in use, parts of the shank of the key being removed to shorten the view.

Figure 2 is an enlarged side elevation of the cleaner element in open position.

Figure 3 is an outer edge view of the cleaner at right angles to Figure 2.

Figure 4 is a top view of the cleaner shovel in open position,

0 Figure 5 is an elevation of a modification of the key.

There is illustrated a metermans key or curb box key 10 formed of suitable steel rod stock, usually one-half of an inch in diameter. It

may have at its upper end a cross handle 11 by which the tool may be turned, and its lower end is provided with a key slot 12, the longitudinally projected jaws 13 at each side of the slot being pointed at their lower ends so that they may be used in digging up and loosening the detritus in a box.

On the shank 14 of the key, a short distance above the jaws 13, a helecoidal blade 15 is pivoted, having two ears 16 extending diagonally upward from the blade on respective sides of the shank and pivoted thereon by means of a cross pin 17 engaged through the shank. The advancing edge of this blade when moved clock-wise is inclined downwardly, while the trailing edge is turned upward so that it serves as a stop, preventing material from passing off the blade in operation as will be described. The blade is stamped in the flat in a form nearly circular but slightly ovate and the ears of the blank extend divergently from one side at angles of about 45 degrees to the minor axis of the oval. The end portions of the oval project a short distance beyond the bases of the adjacent ears 18. The bases of the ears are spaced from each other the distance of the diameter of the shank 14, and the edge between the ears may be shaped to the contour of the shank. The outer end portions of the ears are twisted through a quarter turn raising the outer edges of the ears so that the end portions may lie parallel to the shank. The cross pin 17 is engaged loosely through the cars, so that the blade may readily swing by gravity into operative position.

In use of this form of the device, when the service man finds a curb box choked with detritus over the cock so that the key cannot be engaged to operate the cock, he rests the key upon the dirt and rotates it in a clockwise direction so as to break up the dirt and permit the end of the key to enter thereinto. The blade falls by gravity into extended position and the operation described is continued until the blade engages and lifts some of the accumulated dirt thereon. Thereupon the tool is lifted so as to draw up from the box the dirt on the blade, and the dirt is then thrown to a place away fromthe box. The tool is then reintroduced into the box and the blade utilized to lift more dirt as before, the operation being repeated as required.

The radius of the blade is such that it may readily rotate between the handle 19 of the cock and the side of the curb box, and also when required in the upper port of such boxwhich is ordinarily smaller in diameter than the lower partthe tool may be rotated on the vertical axis of the box, there being then a substantial clearance outwardly of the blade so that its use is not obstructed.

When the box has been cleared sufficiently of the accumulated material, the key is adjusted to the cock so that the slot 12 receives the handle 19 snugly, and the cock may then be operated to cut off or open the service as the case may be.

If desired, as shown in Figure 5, the jaws 13 may be formed with respective inclined shovellike extensions 34 projecting in opposite directions, projecting beside and parallel to the slot 12. These form parts of the jaws and will not interfere with engagement of the key on the cock and operation of the cock. 'In rotation of this key when there is dirt covering the cock, the extensions 34 plow up the dirt permitting the tool to move downward thereinto and the blade 10 following soon engages the upper part of the dirt and lifts it as before mentioned. It should be understood that, while the blade is movable by gravity to extended position, gravity is not depended on entirely. Thus, it might be found diiilcult to engage the blade with the packed earth by mere engagement of the blade with the top surface thereof, but by the use of the penetrating jaws or the screw 22 the blade is finally forced into a bore made in the accumulated material, and its edges then en gage and work their way outward until the ma terial is engaged over the blade. The extremity of the blade being inclined with a pitch which causes it to be forced downward (see Figure 3) when engaging material at such extremity only facilitates entry of the blade into the detritus at all points of engagement. The jaws 13 cooprate with the blade 15 by serving as a penetrating element to lead the blade. Also, if the tool isforced into the earth and trash in a box, the broad shape of the key head adapts it to form an opening by which the blade may enter into the accumulation while in retracted position without damage, and by subsequent rotation of the tool the blade may more readily cut into the material, so as to enable the box to be cleared.

My appliance is specially valuable to use as a boring tool, also to form openings under pavements for the insertion of service pipes, or other purposes, as will be understood, making it unnecessary to continue trenches entirely from dwellings or buildings to the curb box, but permitting boring of a small passage through a substantial part of the earth intervening, as well as efiecting similar use between the curb box to city mains under pavements.

The form of the point proper of the tool may be varied, as desired, within the scope of the invention as claimed.

I claim:-

1. A combined key tunneling bar and cleanout for curb boxes comprising a shank having a key thereon, and a helicoidal blade pivoted on the shank movable from initial position close beside the shank to operative position extending laterally therefrom, the medial part of the blade being substantially horizontal in operative position, and having an upturned trailing edge portion, the key projecting below the blade and having jaws adapted to engage a cock handle and to operate as leading members for the blade.

2. An article of the character described comprising a shank, a blade pivoted thereon adapted to lie close against the shank and movable by gravity outward from the shank to extend 0 laterally therefrom, the blade being a helicoid segment having its axis coincident with that of the shank. v

3. The structure of claim 2 in which the blade comprises a sheet metal blank of substantially 105 ovate form having two cars projecting from one side spaced and divergent from the transverse axis or" the oval, said ears being twisted a quarter turn into parallel relation extending obliquely upward beside the shank and pivoted thereto, no one end edge portion being inclined downwardly, and the opposite end edge portion being turned upward to form a stop for the purposes described.

vroToR E. BEAGLE. 

